That tangent aside, I’m all for appearance tabs. If it’s really a PvP issue (which I tend to disagree with, but whatever), indeed, just turn the appearance gear off when the PvP flag is on. In my book, the options this would give players make it well worth the implementation.

I’d even call it a bit of karmic balance, since they are taking away the bulk of our ability to tinker with multiple talent trees.

Now Blizzard have said “we don’t want to start implementing aesthetic items in the game which allow players to look however they want”. However, this overcloak doesn’t do that. The overcloak is entirely of Blizzard’s design. There’s already an item which allows players much more aesthetic control: the guild tabard.

So I have to agree that the reason Blizzard gave for not allowing this overcloak is rubbish. As to what the real reason is, perhaps it is a technical issue, but I rather think that Kring called it correctly: this will be an RMT item some day in the future, along with armour dyes and who knows whatnot else (perhaps dance studio can be monetized)?

We’ve been tossing around some other ideas with regard to gear customization, but we still want to make sure there are appropriate limitations on a system like this. The limited buff timer on the overcloak just wasn’t enough considering it would mask any cloak of any level. We’ll continue to explore ideas for fun aesthetic gear customization, but we didn’t feel this was the proper introduction of this kind of system.

So while these overcloaks are out for now, cosmetic customisation options in general are not.

The not made money if they give it away for free.

Unless your BiS item looks like shit. Then it’s no longer a visual reward but a sacrifice you bring for the greater good.

The heroic Sanguine Silk Robe does not look very warlockish…

I think that having your character, which is the central element on your screen, constantly change helps a lot with keeping the game fresh, especially for a game where you play for so long.

As you gain gear, your character organically shifts in look, transitioning from one look to another. The first thing everyone does when a new piece of gear drops, is equip it or look at it in the wardrobe. We commiserate with people when the gear looks bad, we congratulate them when the gear looks good.

When you get a new piece of gear, it’s not just a reward in stats, it’s a visual reward. Your character on-screen changes, and that is tangible.

When new tier sets come out, the look is a far greater topic of discussion than the stats. (There are massive debates on the paladin forums on plate skirts/cassocks.)

In my opinion, having your character’s look undergo slight changes constantly is good for the longevity of the game, and full cosmetic gear cuts against that.

My guess:

The real reason is that there is indeed a U turn at Blizzard. The sudden stagnation (decrease?) of sub numbers with WotLK and some other things allowed the ‘virtual world’ guys to regain influence while the ‘gameplay’ guys lost influence.

Blizzard stated some time ago that they liked that players could identify Askandi from afar in Vanilla and they would like to reintroduce this effect. Basically they said that they liked items and their looks to have meaning. In this philosophy an item should be more than part of an aribtrary T-set number.

I like RP myself, and this is why I agree with this decision.